QotW: What JNC needs a line of reproduction parts support?

Nothing beats a trunk full of fresh parts to help with that resto job on your latest J-tin project. Sometimes a mountain of parts is needed just to get the engine to breathe new life to an old but still cherished JNC. Getting those much needed parts can cost and arm and a leg to get the classic back on all four tires, if you can even find them in the first place. Yikes!

In the span of one week, we heard that Mazda and Honda was easing the pain and shortening the hunt for restoration parts for the Japan-market Eunos Roadster (Miata) and Honda Beat. (No doubt this is wondrous news to our own David Lovett who’s a proud owner of a bumble bee Beat — say that 5 times fast — in Texas!) Though David and a very small group of classic collectors may be in luck, I wanted to ask the group about their own wishes for restoration parts. What say you:

What JNC needs a line of reproduction parts support?

The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Who will win Japan’s automaker Game of Thrones, Toyota-Subaru-Mazda or Nissan-Mitsubishi?

Last week was a time to celebrate Obon in Japan which pulled me out of the office. So I gave the reigns to Ben for posting up last week’s QotW. To my surprise, he somehow weaved in a GoT reference which questioned some; and delighted others. Many pointed out the strong shock-and-awe play of Toyota announcing yet another partnership, this time with Mazda.

Others looked at how the times have changed and looking at this rivalry to spark fire in the hearts of engineering teams to pump out vehicles that once again can capture our longing gaze at the stop light.

That said, this week’s win goes to Wayne Thomas. Not for the deep analysis of the divide between driver and rider as “ownership” and “enthusiast” are replaced with convenience and infotainment connectivity; No, Wayne won because I almost spit green tea out of my mouth when I read his response:

Mitsuoka is The Prince That Was Promised.

May we see the day Mitsuoka sits on the Iron Throne! 😉

Omedetou! Your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop.

JNC Decal smash

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27 Responses to QotW: What JNC needs a line of reproduction parts support?

  1. Ant says:

    Suzuki Cappuccino would be a good follow-on from the Beat, but now we know Honda’s capable of it on relatively humble vehicles, I’m sure there’d be a market for official parts for some of the older Civic generations. Yellow Civic SiR seats, anyone?

  2. TSLegendary says:

    1988-1992 Nissan S Chassis.Lately, things like the door seals, window seals and other hard to find parts have begun to fail.Purist and fans of the series that want to keep things original just can’t find OEM parts anymore.When you do, your forced to over pay just because its original and NOS.($300.00 for a Ignitor Chip)Sadly I think the Silvia & 180SX get strongly over looked do to the strong Z fan-base.

    • MikeRL411 says:

      Let’s expand this to soft parts like the seat cushions and backs! My 1990 240sx needs a new driver’s seat back badly. Upholsters have nothing that resembles the OEM fabric.

  3. Yuri says:

    AE86 without a doubt. We’ve gotten to a point where almost every 86 is being saved rather than junked, but at the same time, it’s extremely difficult to restore one because of the lack of interior and trim pieces available. It’s not even an option to find and part out SR5’s for bits, since even they are valuable and worth saving as a vehicle rather than a source of parts.
    With the increasing values of 86’s around the world (and the fact that it’s such an icon, Toyota made a new one) I can see a market for things like new dashboards, door panels, seat backs, the little cupholder ring that goes in the center console, taillight and signal lenses, decals, etc. Even having cool options like the factory aero parts would be fantastic. I personally prefer the JDM parts, because as an automotive designer, I appreciate the vehicles design in it’s original form, with closely tucked bumpers that reflect the continuation of the character lines through the car, but I think it would be fantastic to bring back hard to find USDM parts too, like the under valance for the USDM GT-S bumper, or the original leather wrapped USDM GT-S steering wheel for starters. Especially since the guys in Japan LOVE the USDM bumpers….

    • cesariojpn says:

      Row52 has three on the scrappers row……oh wait, now it’s two.

    • ish says:

      This is the correct answer. I say this cause I own a GTS and its a pain in the ass to find parts to restore it with. I mean they made a throw back car called the 86 so clearly they think its an important part of Toyota’s history. There are entire meets/events centered on this one 30 year old car all over the world. If they dont its only a matter of time till an aftermarket company like TTT starts making it themselves.

      • ish says:

        Wanted to reply to myself to say the AW11 should be thrown in there as well. Same engine and some interior parts are the same, so might as well.

    • ahja says:

      Agreed. Without a doubt. Seeing this topic my response was going to be “it can only be the ae86”.

  4. Dimitry says:

    AE86, NSX, S-Chassis, Supra’s, Celica’s, Z’s, RX-7’s. Pretty much the cars that were called JDM heroes over the various decades. All of those cars are slowly decaying and with failing aftermarket support, only the original manufacturers can help by running limited runs of parts, that, or help (read: finance) various aftermarket companies to do so for them.

  5. Jaceracer says:

    Toyota AE86 and MR2 AW11. Some parts are so hard find for these two its almost literally waiting for someone to wreck. Some of the fragile plastic trim has nearly reached the same price as a short block.

  6. Scotty G says:

    Being selfish, I vote for the M10 (1986 4WD) Nissan Stanza and/or B11 (1884) Nissan Sentra! The Stanza is ridiculously hard to get parts for, any parts. The 4WD model is nearly impossible but so cool. Then, the EA82T / 1988 Subaru RX sedan, which will never, ever happen with so few of them being sold. 1980 Dodge D-50 Sport (Mitsubishi) is next. Then, the 1967 Yamaha YL-1 Twin-Jet 100. No, wait… JNC, not JNM..

  7. Jeremy A. says:

    The 1979-1983 S130Z, and the 1984-1989 Z31 Z. Most Z-car support is for the S30, Z32, Z33, and Z34. But the 1979-1989 Z cars represent some of the most successful JNC “bubble cars”, and yet there’s almost no support for them, including being almost left out of Z-car history literature, or existing only as a footnote. Yet these cars were leaders in the Japanese bubble-era trend of turbocharging and filling cars with whizbang technology that people associate with Japanese cars even today.

  8. Alan says:

    If someone could make some reproduction AW11 C-pillar trim that’d be greeeeaaaat.

  9. DerbyCityGinger says:

    Toyota: AW11 and AE86
    Nissan: S30
    Mazda: RX-3
    Honda: early Golden age compacts
    Subaru and Mitsu: who cares? (Kidding ?)

  10. Bryan Kitsune says:

    I’ve been having a really hard time lately finding parts for my Infiniti Prototype 9. It’d be cool not to have to build everything from scratch…

  11. Dutch 1960 says:

    Mazda rotary 12A rotor housings and apex seals. Unlike trim and plastic, these are engine wear pieces, and one holed radiator can destroy a set of rotor housings very easily. There are no substitutes and the parts are getting impossible to find at any price. A production run or quality repro batch of parts is not going to happen, but it would be nice if it did.

    As it is, adapting a later model 13B is the only way to go now, once the original engine goes away.

  12. bob says:

    Without a doubt the S30 and S130 could benefit from a steady and solid line of reproduction parts. Beyond the soft trim, the sheet metal would the most needed and difficult to find nowadays. How about some items like heater valves and heater cores? The problem is that there are very few serious owners willing to pay what it would cost to reproduce those parts and allow for a “normal profit”. I know of one case: the rear view mirror–after reproduction costs the ‘ready to ship to your door’ might be in excess of $200 and yet the same ‘serious owners’ balk at paying anymore than $50 which is why we don’t have those parts available,

    Ideally a new complete body shell such as those that are available for the MGB and early Mustangs. Unfortunately Japan is the size of the state of California and yet it has the same population as the United States which explains why Nissan most likely dismantled the tooling decades ago. With the advent of 3D printing technology and some factory documents there could be hope in the future for a new body shell to be available?

    • Yuri says:

      There’s a company in the UK fabricating complete body shells for S30’s. I think they even offer a full carbon fiber version.

    • ahja says:

      Unfortunately Japan only has around 1/3 population of the US. And S30s actually have quite a bit of repro support. Definitely the most of any Japanese car. By farrr.

  13. Gary says:

    We are willing to bring interior parts to the market for AE86 and AW11.

    Please email me sales@toyotaheritage.com

    We have just finished the R&D on some seat runner covers for the S40 Crown as our foray into interior parts and they have come up a treat. These can also be seen on our website. http://www.toyotaheritage.com

  14. Steeko says:

    AE86 for sure,,, 83-85 supra and celica, but really Toyota should be supporting the AE86 interest as it seems like the rest of the world loves this car and Toyota is ignoring us.

    I love Toyota but their lack of interest in their old cars really annoys me.

    It’s like they’re embarassed from wearing stone wash jeans in the 80s or something…
    They should embrace those jeans !

    Sooner or later the aftermarket will start to remanufacture what they need…

  15. Bart says:

    All these guys above got it all wrong. The Isuzu Impulse (Piazza) is the obvious choice. Isuzu parts are very difficult to find, and everyone is sick of looking at Toyotas, Datsuns and Hondas anyway (booooorrrrrrring). 🙂

  16. Kiran says:

    Why not ALL of the old J tin its a win for everyone from owners with one off j tin to Honda civics and accords

  17. Bryan Kitsune says:

    Forgot to leave a real response. I’ll keep it short since it’s last week’s question: Datsun Sports 1600/2000 Roadster

  18. Don Scott says:

    Early Civic and CRX. My little Civic Si got clobbered, and finding NOS parts is awful.
    http://www.mgexp.com/registry/1991CIVICSI

    Hey JNC, how about posing the question: “Is there an insurance company that sells agreed-upon value for old Japanese cars that are in great shape?” I have State Farm and they want to pay me $2,000 for my Civic and claim it’s a total loss.

  19. Ryan says:

    I vote for cars that don’t have a lot of support.

    Toyota: TE2x, TE7x, AE86 Corollas; RA/TA2x, RA6x Celicas

    Nissan/Datsun: S13 chassis

    Mazda: R100, RX-2, -3

    Mitsu: Lancers all the way up to the Box-types.

    I see that original Mini shells are now being reproduced.

    I understand that Toyota doesn’t want to make parts for the old cars, but how about licensing the parts? I believe that’s how classic American parts are still made available.

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